Pew: World Muslim Population at 1.6 Billion, With Minority in Middle East
By Dan Gilgoff, God & Country
A major new demographic study from the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life pegs the world's Muslim population at 1.57 billion. Previous estimates had put the number at anywhere from 1 billion to 1.8 billion.
Americans tend to associate Islam with the Arab Street and Middle East politics, but the study finds that just 20 percent of the global Muslim population resides in the Middle East and North Africa. Sixty percent of Muslims live in Asia.
The Middle East-North Africa region, meanwhile, is home to the highest proportion of Muslim majority nations. "More than half of the 20 countries and territories in that region have populations that are approximately 95 percent Muslim or greater," according to the new report.
Other interesting tidbits:
—Two thirds of the global population lives in these 10 countries: Indonesia, Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, Egypt, Nigeria, Iran, Turkey, Algeria, Morocco.
—More than 300 million Muslims, or one-fifth of the world's Muslim population, live in countries where Islam is not the majority religion. These minority Muslim populations are often quite large. India, for example, has the third-largest population of Muslims worldwide. China has more Muslims than Syria, while Russia is home to more Muslims than Jordan and Libya combined.
—Of the total Muslim population, 10-13 percent are Shia Muslims and 87-90 percent are Sunni Muslims. Most Shias (between 68 percent and 80 percent) live in just four countries: Iran, Pakistan, India and Iraq.
Read the full Pew report here.
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Reader Comments
Jealousy
People who come and deride this report or come to propagate this report are doing nothing more than religious dick/penis measuring. Grow up and be adults. For the vast majority of the people, religion provides a sense of order out of all the chaos in life. And this is why people are becoming more religious or gravitating toward spirituality. All this ish about religion freedom and things are just bitter people who were abused as children. Perhaps you should look into religions to find some solace.
Mohammad had sex with 9 yr old future wife
Islam was spread with the sword, its symbol. The crescent sword represents the moon & the menses cycle. All faiths were invented to create the category of "paid preachers." The 3 major faiths are based on the Bible & all demand the 10% lifetime tithe. Holy wars are battles to shift money value of tithes from one batch of preachers to another. They all say males are superior to females. Women are the sole source of ongoing generations of people who tithe. Ban-Abortionists exist to force women to replace tithers who die or lose faith. Islam & Catholicism encourage BIG families with many tithers. Islam lets a man impregnate 4 wives in succession. So Islam can one day be the majority world population & be able to make everyone live under Sharia law. In 1973, the Supreme Court made our civil government stop enforcing Canon Law that bans abortion. That ruling was Roe v Wade. Civil libertarians must not let the Court repeal Roe. The Court has an amazing majority of Roman Catholics. It they try to repeal Roe, we must remind them it is not only about "privacy" but about a woman's right to TRAVEL, to MOVE AROUND, to GO WHERE SHE WANTS--including to an abortionist.
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